When Monika Albrecht talks about her homeland, you can tell she has a passion for the "forest", as the locals affectionately call the Bregenzerwald. Her eyes light up as she recounts how she was already out in the mountains every day as a six-year-old, helping her parents to scythe the steep meadows and bring in the hay. She still goes up to the alp on foot today, and in winter she climbs the same slopes on skis. And as often as she has time, Monika, the head of tourism in Au, is also out on her mountain bike and racing bike. Her daily record on a racing bike is 245 kilometres, she says casually as we stock up on tips for our tours.
The village of Au, with a population of 1,700, is tucked into the valley between Kanisfluh and Didamskopf. Apart from the road towards Bezau, all roads lead upwards, either over the Furkajoch (1,759 metres), the highest pass in the region, or up the Hochtannberg (1,676 metres), which leads into the Lechtal valley. Both passes are among the most painful tests with ramps well above the ten per cent mark. "S'hot weh tau", says the Wälder when it hurts. And "guat tau" when it was pleasant. In most cases, however, foreigners understand virtually nothing, even though the Wälder dialect even achieved national fame some time ago when the band Holstuonarmusigbigbandclub (HMBC) landed a hit in 2011 with the curious song "Vo Mello bis ge Schoppornou" (From Mellau to Schoppernau).
You can find the complete travel report with these tours as a PDF download below:
- Tour 1: Up to Bödele (74 kilometres, 1,520 vertical metres, max. 14 % gradient)
- Tour 2: Walser passes (89 kilometres, 2,680 metres in altitude, max. 14 % gradient)
